Friday, April 30, 2010

Playing Grownup

One of the perks (and perhaps downfalls, depending on who you ask) of owning a home is that you get to put some (a LOT of) work into the home and make it yours. All the final touches, tiny and delicate details and, good Lord, all that planning, come together in the end to present you with the final gift of your efforts. This gorgeous room/wall/flowerbed is something YOU made happen. It was your brain child from start to finish and evey time you see that project of yours, complete and brand spanking new, a new sense of accomplishment takes you over and spurs you on toward the next big project in life.

We have so many projects on our We Want Everything For Our New Home Wishlist (WWEFONHW), it's not even funny. Some larger than others, some MUCH more expensive than others, and others much more urgent than the rest. Obviously, urgency is first and foremost with items on our list. We can't have a leaky/drafty/unpainted house, now can we?

Currently our WWEFONHW is on a white board in our kitchen where we can keep a running tab on the things we want to do/buy for our home. The list is LONG. Some of the jobs are easy and inexpensive, like "Weed the flower beds" (which, as it turns out, IS inexpensive but NOT easy). Others are HUGE and expensive tasks, and we have "Re-do the driveway" and "Complete kitchen remodel" among the larger tasks at the top of our list.

Something I've been meaning to get to for a while is our bathroom. We decided not to paint the bathroom before we moved in because it wasn't incredibly urgent and I was still unsure what I wanted to do with it. Well, after being in the home for 9 months (!!!) I've figured it out...

YELLOW and GRAY!

Hot colors right now, yes? And I find myself drawn to yellow and gray at every turn. Yellow tart pan? Yes please! Yellow and gray skirt from Old Navy? Adorbs! Everywhere I turn I see that color combination and I openly swoon and coo at the item, willing it to be my own.

So, the big ticket item for my bathroom? A yellow and gray shower curtain. No problem! I figured, with those two colors being the color combination of the season, I would have no problem at all finding a shower curtain that was exactly what I wanted. That is, until I began looking.

I started by looking in stores around the Portland area... Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Walmart, Fred Meyer and... nothing. Sure, I could find plain yellow or plain gray, but... meh. I wanted something more. Then I began looking online. When search after search turned up not a damn thing that I liked, I decided to channel my inner Martha Stewart and get all crafty-like.

With ideas overflowing I head to the fabric store and OH my LORD the CHOICES! After circling the store, picking up fabric to compare it to another, setting it down, searching some more, choosing said fabric, and waiting in line for 30 minutes to have the fabric cut, I was ready to go! I picked up a few more things that I needed and headed home, anxious to begin my new project.

Here's what everything looked like when I got home and got ready to work:

Notice, perhaps, that there is no sewing machine in this picture? Yeah, I don't own one even though it's been on my Christmas and birthday lists for a couple of years now, and even if I did own one, I would have no clue in how to use it.

This post is getting REALLY long, so stay tuned to see what I used in lieu of a sewing machine, and to see the finished product!